Editorial: Time for Consumer Product Safety Commission to step into 21st century

When federal authorities have received complaints about a potentially dangerous product, how long should it be before consumers are made aware?

Would three years be too long?

Of course it would, but that’s how long it can take under current conditions.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been operating in the 21st century at speeds that would be more appropriate for life in Colonial days.

This is set to change soon, as the commission plans to launch a database of complaints that would be accessible to the public. If there’s a child’s toy or a power tool or a household device that’s been implicated as hazardous, such crucial information would be available to consumers in time to make a difference, to protect them and their loved ones, even to save lives.

A couple of examples: Drop-side cribs had been connected to a series of infant deaths, but that information was not publicly available until the cribs were banned. Toxic drywall made in China was imported to the United States for years before consumers were alerted to the danger.

These are the sorts of complaints that would be posted online, protecting the citizens instead of keeping them needlessly in the dark.

Who could oppose this?

The two Republicans on the Consumer Product Safety Commission, that’s who. Such information would be anti-business, they argue, and would be open to abuse.

This was their position even before the database was officially unveiled. It’s a little like the folks who want a particular movie to be banned before before they’ve even been able to see it. The commission has built safeguards into the database so that spurious complaints will not see the light of day. It will also guard against strikes from a company that makes a competing product.